Page 117 - Dutch Ships in Tropical Waters

fleet could be employed to escort less defensible cargo carriers on their voyage to Surat and Persia. If the ships were not needed anymore for the blockade, they could pick up cargo on their way to Batavia, where they would be maintained and prepared for the next blockade season. For lighter cargo such as pepper from the Malabar Coast or cinnamon from Ceylon, they would keep their ballast. If they were sent to the Coromandel to collect the saltpetre that served as an excellent ballast product for the retourvloot, they had to unload their original bal- last. The ships that ended up in Persia could make their return voyage direct to Batavia from around May but there were often navigational problems with this route and it could take four to five months before they reached Batavia. It was safer to sail via Galle to make a stopover for horses which were traditionally shipped from this region. From here, an extra trip into the Bay of Bengal was also possible in order to spend the money recieved from trade in Persia. How- ever, the VOC also had to work around the necessity for the Persian silk to be in Batavia in time for transport to the Far East or the retourvloot. In the Far East and in the Arabian Sea, special fleets were stationed and an organisation set up on a seasonal basis. The total blockade fleet would annually leave the region of the Arabian Sea and only a few smaller flutes would stay behind in Taiwan. In other regions, the VOC had to maintain a fleet and a specific organisation on a more permanent basis. This applies for the smaller utility vessels that were needed at certain destinations where they had to maintain communication and assist with the loading and unloading of the arriving ships. For reasons discussed in chapter , these vessels are not fully recognised in this study because they were often purchased locally and hardly made any voyages outside the region where they were sta- tioned. It is clear that this fleet of smaller vessels played an important role in the VOC in Asia. This study has shown the VOC focus of employing their own fleet in Asia. The role of Asian vessels appears very limited; further research into the smaller utility vessels might show a broader role, a different picture. On a larger scale, the VOC required vessels locally. For example, well-armed small yachts would stay for long periods on the Coast of Coromandel. These yachts needed to be armed in order to protect the VOC’s interest, initially against the Portuguese and then later in conflicts with local rulers. The draught of these yachts was less than  feet so that they could enter the river outlets to be maintained locally. In order to be able to sail against the monsoon winds they needed to be swift and good sailing vessels. Their area of operation was from Galle, where they patrolled part of the year, to far into the Bay of Bengal. Since textile had to be collected from various harbours along the Coast of Coromandel med- ium sized yachts and flutes were active in this region. These vessels also collected cargo from Bengal and Aracan. They gathered the cargo that could not be collected by the larger ships that were unsuitable for the sailing along the coast. Knitting all the threads together: the logistics of the network 